Yle to read The Koran cover to cover on radio series

The holy book of Islam, The Koran, will be read in its entirety on Yle’s Radio 1 channel in Finnish starting on March 7. The unprecedented project is intended to increase people’s knowledge of The Koran and Muslim culture in Finland.

The Koran is the holy book of more than a billion Muslims.
Image: Abed Al Hashlamoun / EPA

The Pasila district studios of the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle have completed an ambitious and
one-of-a-kind radio project. It is a radio series in which the holy book of
Islam, the Koran, will be read cover-to-cover in 60 half-hour-long instalments.

Each instalment will
begin with a discussion between Imam Anas Hajjar, a leader of the Finnish
Muslim community, and the translator of the text into Finnish, Professor Jaakko
Hämeen-Anttila. In these introductory discussions, the two men will explore the
religious and historical context of the text to be read.

“It’s nice to hear my
translation be read aloud. It is important that the Koran is read in its
entirety, and not just select items that show that Islam is bad and violent or
good and beautiful. All of the text material is served up for the listener to
assess,” says Hämeen-Anttila.

The Koran needs an
interpreter

The Koran is 1,400 years
old, and for this reason, Hämeen-Anttila says it doesn’t open up to modern
listeners just like that. Interpretation is necessary, but this means stepping
on shaky ground.

“We haven’t been at
loggerheads, but Imam Anas Hajjar and I have often read the same passage and
approached it from a very different point of view. Imam Hajjar reads practical,
contemporary meanings into the text and I see it as an historic work that is tied to
the time in which it was created,” he says.

According to
Hämeen-Anttila, the two men’s discussed “everything between heaven and earth”
during the radio series. Among other things, they consider the role of Satan,
men’s behaviour instructions when in the company of women and the Ayat an-Nur,
or ‘Verse of Light’, the Arabic text found on the wall of many Muslims’ homes.

Hämeen-Anttila says he
doesn’t believe it is necessary to be careful with one’s words when discussing
the Koran, even if it is a holy book. Yet he admits he is aware that the ancient text still functions as a daily guide to over a billion
people.

Muslim community
active in development of the project

Yle called on the most
authoritative representatives of Islam in Finland to make the programme and the
resulting series has their approval. Offhand, Imam Anas Hajjar can’t think of a
reason why anyone would be offended.

“The programme is an
important step in understanding one another. It is an attempt to tell the story
of The Koran and what it contains,” he says.